Islamic Group Questions Arrest

PLANTATION — A Miami Beach man, arrested this week on charges he threatened to blow up an electronics store, is the victim of either a misguided investigation or a misunderstanding, an advocacy group said Friday.

Plantation police, however, said the arrest was made only after a complete investigation, and the Broward County State Attorney's Office said it was reviewing the case before filing formal charges, as is common.

The arrest Tuesday of Taiser Okashah, 43, after a June 3 exchange that was reported to the police on June 5, was troubling, said Altaf Ali, executive director of the Florida office of the Council on American-Islamic Relations.

"The community is very concerned that a very humble member of the community, for asking a question about a rebate, can be put in jail," Ali said during a news conference. Okashah, a Muslim, was being held without bail at Broward County Jail. He was charged by Plantation police with threatening to detonate an explosive.

According to Ali, an arrest affidavit and a police report, the incident began at 7:30 p.m. June 3, when Okashah went to the Best Buy store at 12301 W. Sunrise Blvd. and encountered sales representative Alejaundro Schnakofsky. After discussing the purchase of a laptop computer, Okashah questioned whether he would get the rebate promised with the computer.

Schnakofsky said in a sworn statement that Okashah said, "I am going to come back and blow up this place if I do not get my money this time."

But Okashah never introduced the idea of a bomb, according to Ali. "All he said was, `These rebates are a big lie,' and it appears the clerk misunderstood that statement," Ali said.

Two days after the incident, the Best Buy manager made a report with Plantation police, and a detective interviewed Schnakofsky and two store managers before obtaining an arrest warrant from a Circuit Court judge. Plantation Police Sgt. Al Butler could not explain why the store waited two days to report the incident, and officials at the store declined to comment.

Ali said Okashah was wrongly being held without charges, and he could not understand why an immigration hold had been placed on Okashah.

Barbara Gonzalez of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said the hold was placed on Okashah because he overstayed the visa under which he entered the country.

The core of the problem was a miscommunication, exacerbated by the negative stereotyping of Muslims, Ali said. "We believe this was simply a misunderstanding between the clerk and the accused."

Staff Researcher Bill Lucey contributed to this report.

Kevin Smith can be reached at kssmith@sun-sentinel.com or 954-572-2009.